Saudi Aramco Scientists Achieve First Trillion Cell Reservoir Simulation Run

November 24, 2016

Nov. 24 — The EXPEC Advanced Research Center (EXPEC ARC) TeraPOWERS Technology Team, under the leadership of Saudi Aramco fellow Ali Dogru, achieved a major breakthrough with the industry’s first trillion cell reservoir simulation run on Oct. 28.

Saudi Aramco’s cornerstone technology, the parallel oil, gas and water enhanced reservoir simulator (POWERS deployed 2000) has taken its next evolutionary step from mega-cell to giga-cell (GigaPOWERS achieved in 2010) and now to tera-cell (TeraPOWERS of 2016) simulation capability.

“This is the world’s first trillion cell run, as well as a major breakthrough for the global scientific community. Using trillions of cells in a reservoir simulation environment was a long-awaited dream for the global petroleum industry and scientific community,” said  Dogru. “We simulated an oil migration problem in the Kingdom from the source rock to the trap with millions of years of history in 10 hours using 1 trillion active computational cells. This achievement opens the door for us to simulate the Saudi Arabian peninsula in its entirety, as one model, using the reservoir simulation grid. This means that we will be able to examine the peninsula under the microscope for new oil and gas fields.”

Shaheen II and collaboration

The breakthrough was achieved using the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Shaheen II super computer. EXPEC ARC has supported and collaborated on a range of upstream research programs at KAUST over the years. Scientists used 150,000 cores — about 75% of the capacity of the entire computer. Since the computing power requirements are so enormous for computational modeling technology development, KAUST provides EXPEC ARC access to the Shaheen II on an arranged basis. During these special requests, KAUST contributes super computer run time, as well as specialized personnel for system program support to ensure the runs go smoothly.

“We could not have achieved this incredible milestone without the expertise and resources from KAUST, which provided superb support,” said lead TeraPOWERS developer Larry Fung, who was a founding member of the original POWERS and instrumental in the KAUST partnership. “Working on GigaPOWERS over the years — and now TeraPOWERS — has been such an exciting experience. We are driving the industry’s leading state-of-the-art technology and working on one of the largest magnitude of clusters in the industry to deliver a most powerful solution.”

EXPEC ARC and modeling

The simulation of the flow of fluids in the subsurface through and around the reservoir structure requires vast computational power. The more reservoir engineers know about what is going on in and around the reservoirs, the more effectively they can place wells and manage production of hydrocarbons to optimize resources.

Since the giant reservoirs of Saudi Arabia are among the biggest in the world, the company requires extremely powerful modeling and simulation capability to understand the mysteries of the underground. No such capability existed in the industry, so EXPEC ARC embarked upon the arduous journey of pioneering its own in-house technology solution in 1994 with just a small team of scientists. The team grew over the years and achieved the million cell simulation milestone in 2000.

With the greater number of cells in the reservoir models, greater detail is provided on the reservoirs. A giant field such as Ghawar — the largest in the world — was not able to be simulated in its entirety with sufficient resolution until GigaPOWERS came along. Suddenly, reservoir engineers could understand connectivity among the various reservoirs and improve the management of the field.

“GigaPOWERS has proven extremely valuable in providing high-impact return on investment for Reservoir Management and Exploration,” said Nasir K. Al Naimi, vice president of Petroleum Engineering and Development. “To be able to model the physics of hydrocarbon reservoirs, from their original generation to their final production, and from the tiny pore-scale all the way to the giant field-scale and even to basin scale used to seem impossible. The TeraPOWERS team is a leading example of the pioneering minds at EXPEC ARC that fuel the dreams and deliver the technologies of tomorrow.”

The mission of TeraPOWERS

The mission of TeraPOWERS is twofold: to help increase discovery and recovery. TeraPOWERS will catapult the company much further in reservoir management optimization in visualizing not only all of the fields, but also what is happening between them in one enormous model of the Saudi Arabian basin in its entirety.

“With this major breakthrough, Saudi Aramco is taking a big leap toward the goal of implementing a basin simulator that will provide a fuller picture of our assets, allowing the company to become an even more efficient steward of the Kingdom’s hydrocarbon resources,” said Mohammed Y. Al Qahtani, senior vice president of Upstream. “It is also a demonstration of the top talent our company has for managing our oil and gas assets, with great inventive and innovative minds.”


Source: Saudi Arabian Oil Co.

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from its predecessors, including the red-hot H100 and A100 GPUs. Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. While Nvidia may not spring to mind when thinking of the quant Read more…

2024 Winter Classic: Meet the HPE Mentors

March 18, 2024

The latest installment of the 2024 Winter Classic Studio Update Show features our interview with the HPE mentor team who introduced our student teams to the joys (and potential sorrows) of the HPL (LINPACK) and accompany Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the field was normalized for boys in 1969 when the Apollo 11 missi Read more…

Apple Buys DarwinAI Deepening its AI Push According to Report

March 14, 2024

Apple has purchased Canadian AI startup DarwinAI according to a Bloomberg report today. Apparently the deal was done early this year but still hasn’t been publicly announced according to the report. Apple is preparing Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimization algorithms to iteratively refine their parameters until Read more…

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. Wh Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the fi Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimizat Read more…

PASQAL Issues Roadmap to 10,000 Qubits in 2026 and Fault Tolerance in 2028

March 13, 2024

Paris-based PASQAL, a developer of neutral atom-based quantum computers, yesterday issued a roadmap for delivering systems with 10,000 physical qubits in 2026 a Read more…

India Is an AI Powerhouse Waiting to Happen, but Challenges Await

March 12, 2024

The Indian government is pushing full speed ahead to make the country an attractive technology base, especially in the hot fields of AI and semiconductors, but Read more…

Charles Tahan Exits National Quantum Coordination Office

March 12, 2024

(March 1, 2024) My first official day at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was June 15, 2020, during the depths of the COVID-19 loc Read more…

AI Bias In the Spotlight On International Women’s Day

March 11, 2024

What impact does AI bias have on women and girls? What can people do to increase female participation in the AI field? These are some of the questions the tech Read more…

Alibaba Shuts Down its Quantum Computing Effort

November 30, 2023

In case you missed it, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has shut down its quantum computing research effort. It’s not entirely clear what drove the change. Read more…

Nvidia H100: Are 550,000 GPUs Enough for This Year?

August 17, 2023

The GPU Squeeze continues to place a premium on Nvidia H100 GPUs. In a recent Financial Times article, Nvidia reports that it expects to ship 550,000 of its lat Read more…

Analyst Panel Says Take the Quantum Computing Plunge Now…

November 27, 2023

Should you start exploring quantum computing? Yes, said a panel of analysts convened at Tabor Communications HPC and AI on Wall Street conference earlier this y Read more…

Shutterstock 1285747942

AMD’s Horsepower-packed MI300X GPU Beats Nvidia’s Upcoming H200

December 7, 2023

AMD and Nvidia are locked in an AI performance battle – much like the gaming GPU performance clash the companies have waged for decades. AMD has claimed it Read more…

DoD Takes a Long View of Quantum Computing

December 19, 2023

Given the large sums tied to expensive weapon systems – think $100-million-plus per F-35 fighter – it’s easy to forget the U.S. Department of Defense is a Read more…

Synopsys Eats Ansys: Does HPC Get Indigestion?

February 8, 2024

Recently, it was announced that Synopsys is buying HPC tool developer Ansys. Started in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) by John Swanson (and eventually renamed), Ansys serves the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering)/multiphysics engineering simulation market. Read more…

Intel’s Server and PC Chip Development Will Blur After 2025

January 15, 2024

Intel's dealing with much more than chip rivals breathing down its neck; it is simultaneously integrating a bevy of new technologies such as chiplets, artificia Read more…

Baidu Exits Quantum, Closely Following Alibaba’s Earlier Move

January 5, 2024

Reuters reported this week that Baidu, China’s giant e-commerce and services provider, is exiting the quantum computing development arena. Reuters reported � Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

Choosing the Right GPU for LLM Inference and Training

December 11, 2023

Accelerating the training and inference processes of deep learning models is crucial for unleashing their true potential and NVIDIA GPUs have emerged as a game- Read more…

Training of 1-Trillion Parameter Scientific AI Begins

November 13, 2023

A US national lab has started training a massive AI brain that could ultimately become the must-have computing resource for scientific researchers. Argonne N Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Addresses the Mysteries of Its Hypercomputer 

December 28, 2023

When Google launched its Hypercomputer earlier this month (December 2023), the first reaction was, "Say what?" It turns out that the Hypercomputer is Google's t Read more…

Comparing NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA L40S: Which GPU is Ideal for AI and Graphics-Intensive Workloads?

October 30, 2023

With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…

AMD MI3000A

How AMD May Get Across the CUDA Moat

October 5, 2023

When discussing GenAI, the term "GPU" almost always enters the conversation and the topic often moves toward performance and access. Interestingly, the word "GPU" is assumed to mean "Nvidia" products. (As an aside, the popular Nvidia hardware used in GenAI are not technically... Read more…

Shutterstock 1606064203

Meta’s Zuckerberg Puts Its AI Future in the Hands of 600,000 GPUs

January 25, 2024

In under two minutes, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, laid out the company's AI plans, which included a plan to build an artificial intelligence system with the eq Read more…

Google Introduces ‘Hypercomputer’ to Its AI Infrastructure

December 11, 2023

Google ran out of monikers to describe its new AI system released on December 7. Supercomputer perhaps wasn't an apt description, so it settled on Hypercomputer Read more…

China Is All In on a RISC-V Future

January 8, 2024

The state of RISC-V in China was discussed in a recent report released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report, entitled "E Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire